Interview with FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo on FAO at COP27

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place from 6th November to 20 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

A World Leaders Summit was held over two days during the first week of the conference, convened six high-level roundtable discussions. The discussions highlighted solutions – on themes including food security, vulnerable communities and just transition – to chart a path to overcome climate challenges and how to provide the finance, resources and tools to effectively deliver climate action at scale.

COP27 brought together more than 45,000 participants to share ideas, solutions, and build partnerships and coalitions. Indigenous peoples, local communities, cities and civil society, including youth and children, showcased how they are addressing climate change and shared how it impacts their lives.

FAO supported initiatives launched by the Egyptian COP27 Presidency, provided technical guidance to the negotiations on agriculture and other relevant agenda items, and participated in high-level meetings and events.

The FAO Brussels Liaison Office catches up with Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo who led the FAO delegation.

Maria Helena, what are some of the highlights of COP27?
There were many opportunities to highlight the importance of agrifood system transformation as a key part of climate solutions. Indeed, through hard work and commitment in preparing FAO’s engagement at COP27, we managed to position the Organization as a key actor and recognized player in all major negotiations, debates and high-level events elevating the role of agrifood systems as a key driver to concrete, sustainable, inclusive, resilient and long-term solutions to the climate crisis.

For example, FAO and the Egyptian presidency jointly launched the Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation Initiative (FAST), which aims to improve the quantity and quality of climate finance contributions towards food systems by 2030 and to support adaptation and limit global warming to below 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Promoting food security and diversity, empowering and engaging women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and people in vulnerable situations, using science and innovation to improve agricultural practices across the value chains are just some of the principles that will guide FAST’s work.

FAO also supported the COP presidency in developing the Global Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN) that was also launched during COP27. Recognizing that healthy diets are a critical part of advancing climate action, a roadmap for action to COP28 is already in sight and FAO’s new climate change strategy focuses on resilient and low-emission agrifood systems that provide sufficient, safe and nutritious foods for healthy diets for all.

FAO also participated in the launch of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) Climate Change Initiative, launched by the Presidents of Cyprus and Egypt, bringing countries together to coordinate a concerted regional response to address the climate crisis, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

And, highlighting the FAO Green Cities Initiative, I took part in a high-level meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change, co-led by Egypt and UN-Habitat, to highlight that sustainable urban and agrifood systems and forestry can help cities be resilient and healthy, connecting urban dwellers with nature and delivering benefits across the entire sustainable development agenda.

What other priorities, aligned with FAO’s own Strategic Framework, were highlighted?
For meaningful change and impact, it is important to build on and implement agreed decisions. In this case I was happy to see that during the COP27 World Leaders’ Summit, the Forest and Climate Leaders' Partnership (FCLP) was launched to ensure commitments made in Glasgow to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 are achieved. This voluntary partnership of 26 countries is fully in line with FAO’s work on forestry and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. Meanwhile, ministers from Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo – home to more than half of the world’s tropical rainforests – signed a cooperation agreement that called for a new sustainable funding mechanism to support forest conservation and sustainable management.

Likewise, during the Global Methane Pledge Ministerial meeting, the Green Climate Fund in collaboration with FAO, the Global Dairy Platform, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development approved USD 3.5 million in project preparation funding for the “Pathways to Dairy Net Zero: Promoting Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Livestock in East Africa”.

Sahelian countries welcomed FAO’s support when information was shared on specific data production and the adjustment of carbon assessment tools such as GLEAM-i to the Sahelian context. GLEAM-i is the first open, user-friendly and livestock specific tool designed to support governments, project planners, producers, industry and civil society organizations to calculate greenhouse gas emissions.

Water security was another high priority issue where we contributed to the Presidency initiative on Action on Water, Adaptation and Resilience (AWARE), launched to catalyze inclusive cooperation to address sustainable water management as key to climate change adaptation and resilience.

What about the future work of the Korinivia Joint Work on Agriculture?
The first and only agenda item that focuses on the vulnerabilities of agriculture to climate change and approaches to addressing food security under the UN climate convention is the 2017 Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA). Though the mandate expired, countries at COP27 pushed for the KJWA to continue. Best practices that were extensively discussed in the KJWA on matters such as livestock, soil management, water and the economic impacts of global warming should now be implemented in practice.

This extension has bundled the KJWA into the four-year Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security. There is now a window of opportunity until March 2023 for parties, observers and civil society to shape and broaden this agenda for the next four years.

What else happened at COP27 for FAO?
Well, the launch of 3 new food system-related initiatives and the visibility from the Food and Agriculture Pavilion that we hosted with CGIAR and The Rockefeller Foundation really helped set the tone of COP27.

Furthermore, during this COP, FAO built and further enhanced strategic partnerships paving the path to important work and collaborations, especially by leveraging the potential of the new FAO Climate Change Strategy.

Now, as I get ready to lead FAO’s delegation at the Biodiversity Conference (COP15), already under way in Montreal under the Presidency of China, I can only stress that we must all work even harder to capitalize on our efforts for greater impact of our climate action on the ground and support even more our Members to transform their agrifood systems.